


Autumn Leaves

by ladygray99



Category: White Collar
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-13
Updated: 2011-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-15 15:23:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/162201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladygray99/pseuds/ladygray99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal has a thing about autumn leaves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Autumn Leaves

Neal was a west coast boy, though probably only Peter knew that.

He ran away from Oakland where there are no oak trees and no real seasons and ran east.

The first things he saw were farms, then pine covered mountains, then vast deserts, then rolling planes. Then one September, still a teenager, he hitched a ride to a little Vermont town working such an early primitive con not even Peter knew about it.

He nearly forgot the con when he saw the trees. Reds and yellows he thought only existed in the minds of LA movie makers, like fairy tail castles. Everyone knows what they look like, no one thinks they’re real.

It’s September again and the trees in Central Park are changing but they’re not the same. Neal spends his days going through every cold case looking for a single clue. Anything to justify stepping into Peter’s office and telling him that they have to go north because he knows soon the snow will fall, soon New York will be grey and slush, and after four years of prison Neal knows he needs that hit of colors and the crunch of autumn leaves if he’s going to get through the winter without running.


End file.
